Not Throwing Away Her Shot

Watch the Jennifer Lawrence Glower in the First Clip from Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2

In the first clip from the final Hunger Games installment, Katniss, Gale, and Finnick receive some order that don’t exactly mesh well with their go-getter attitude. Jennifer Lawrence’s character doesn’t exactly take the news that she should hang back well. But we know Katniss won’t stay behind for long. Lawrence spoke with Entertainment Weekly about anticipating Katniss’s big moment.

It’s possible that many years from now we’ll get even more details from Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of the Hunger Games cast about their meteoric rise to fame and the global phenomenon that is the story of Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and a revolution. But given how unusually forthright these particular stars are, it’s possible that we won’t even have to wait that long. As the lucrative franchise comes to a close, Lawrence and her cohorts have been repeatedly asked to look back at the fears and triumphs that dominated the last five years of their lives. And, for Lawrence at least, the scariest part of the Hunger Games didn’t come until the very end.

When Entertainment Weekly asked Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth which scenes they were most worried about in Mockingjay, Part 2, Lawrence replies, “I was excited about the scene at the end of the movie when I shoot my arrow—I won’t give it away— because when I was doing my archery training at age 20, that was always the scene I pictured. Five years ago I used to look at a stack of hay and pretend that it was this moment, and now it is here.” And did she pull it off? “It was C.G.I.,” Lawrence jokes. “So let’s just say I nailed it.”

In typically brash Lawrence fashion, that sounds more like eager anticipation than worry. But Hemsworth points out that she actually was concerned about a scene from Mockingjay, Part 1. “You were particularly nervous about the singing scene. We all know that,” Hemsworth says. Hutcherson adds, “It’s so stupid. You’re such a great singer.” Hemsworth concludes, “She was so worried about it, I assumed that she must have a bad voice. And she did it and I’m like, ‘Jen, it’s actually good.’ She’s like, ‘Shut up!’” The song titled “The Hanging Tree” went on to climb the pop charts in 2014.

That sibling-like affection between the three young stars (Lawrence calls Hemsworth her “punching bag”) is evident to anyone who has seen them interact in interviews. With the fictional grim fate of Panem off their shoulders, these three demonstrate a jovial and rock-solid camaraderie. “If we had met each other in any different circumstance, we would still be best friends,” Lawrence claims. “And our love is as close to unconditional as it gets because there’s no fear between us because we love each other so much. There’s no fear in our love.”

That support is evident when Hutcherson takes his turn in sharing the scene that worried him the most. “For me,” he says, “it was the scene where Peeta had to freak out and lose his mind. I was more excited than nervous, but then right before we shot, I realized I hadn’t planned on what the hell I was going to do. And then they say ‘Action.’ You’re like ‘Ah!’ And you just kind of do it.” That scene has Peeta brutally attacking Katniss and required a lot of trust between Hutcherson and Lawrence. Which, it seems, wasn’t a problem in the slightest. Lawrence says, “That’s always when you do your best because then you’re not thinking. You’re just feeling. Ugh! I meant that when I said it, but I realized how douchey it sounded so I just had to turn it into a joke.” Forthright until the end.